Obituary

treating a higher proportion of patients who were new to the practice. There is the possibility that some of these patients were from a different self-selected group, namely who had found IDB unsuccessful in the past. Meecham1 put forward the case for using a ‘blunderbuss’ approach for patients who had experienced failed anaesthesia in the past. The rationale is that it is more difficult to gain patients’ trust if they have been hurt in the past. The blunderbuss approach is to use IDB and buccal infiltration from the onset with the possible addition of a second IDB higher up the mandibular ramus. Dentists in this study achieved successful IDB analgesia at the second attempt after failure had occurred. This may be because it is easier to move the needle painlessly in tissue and palpate the bony landmarks. Also a higher needle position was employed on all repeat injections. Factors identified by dentist 5 that helped predict an unsuccessful IDB were:  Unable to locate anatomical landmarks—especially the pterygomandibular raphe.  Unable to find a bony landmark with the needle.  Unable to direct the needle satisfactorily due to tough tissue in the pterygomandibular space.  Awkward tongue. Either excessively large or due to lifting posteriorly. Some patients seem unable to allow the tongue to rest passively.  Difficult anatomy where posterior teeth have been lost and alveolar resorption has been excessive.  Needle curved when withdrawn. This is usually a sign that the dentist has struggled to manipulate the needle within the tissues. It is interesting that some practitioners seem reticent to provide IDB analgesia using other techniques whenever they can. Although dentists cite infiltration analgesia as more comfortable than IDB analgesia, there is evidence to show that patients do not perceive any difference.11 Conclusion

Basudeb Adhikary was born on March 10, 1937 in a small village called Bigra in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal. He was the second son of Sasadhar Adhikary and Annapurna Devi. In a small village like Bigra, the educational facilities were very inadequate and young Basudeb had to be moved from place to place even for his early education. He had his primary education at Orgram, his maternal uncle's village and then shifted to Banpas, a small railway station on the Sahebgang loop line, to be admitted at Ban pas Siksha Niketan. After . a few years there, he moved to Guskara P.P. Institution . and passed the School Leaving Examination from there with very high marks in Mathematics. After this he completed his Intermediate Course from Raj College, Burdwan. From this college he also obtained his undergraduate degree with Honours in Mathematics. At this stage, in sharp contrast to his later life, he often idled his time away by playing cards and his guardians had a trying time to instill in him the habit of disciplined study.
After graduation, he came over to Calcutta to join Calcutta University as a post-graduate student in Pure Mathematics with Algebra as a special paper. Basudeb Adhikary began his life in Calcutta in a mess-house at Bhowanipur under the guardianship of his elder brother who was a teacher at Calcutta University. After completing his M.Sc. degree in Pure Mathematics, he opted for another Master's programme, namely in Statistics. Being all along a regular student of Mathematics, he had only a faint idea of the subject of Statistics, which was hardly encouraging and he had to persuade his guardian to allow him to build his career in this new discipline. ii

Calcutta Statistical Association Bulletin
After completing his Master's degree in Statistics, he accepted a government job for a short period and later joined the Department of Statistics, Calcutta University as a Research Scholar under the supervision of late Professor H.K. Nandi, to work in the area of Design of Experiments. His formal training in Mathematics helped him a lot in combinatorial studies of block designs and association schemes and he began to publish research papers regularly. He joined the same Department, his Alma Mater, as a teacher in the year 1966 and continued till his death on October 6, 2000, with a break of one year during 1980-81 when he served the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta as a Visiting Associate Professor of Statistics. Dr.Adhikary had a long association, spanning over more than thirty years, with the Department of Statistics, Calcutta University and the Calcutta Statistical Association.
Dr. Adhikary was very simple in his mien with somewhat oldfashioned and austere habits and had little variation in his living style. On the other hand, he preferred to enjoy variation in his research activities. He showed his research interests in almost all directions in the broad area of Design of Experiments. Though he worked in block designs and association schemes for his Ph.D., he guided students in response surface designs, fractional factorial designs, blocked factorial designs, besides his favourite ground of block designs. He also evinced a keen interest in the area of Econometrics. He was very much researchminded and always thrived with new problems. Even at the superannuation stage, when most teachers relent, he started to guide a student and only his sudden death prevented him to complete the project.
The high standard of teaching and research in Design of Experiments in Calcutta University was set by illustrious teachers like Professors R.C . Bose, H.K. Nandi and S.K. Chatterjee; among others Dr. Basudeb Adhikary was truly an able carrier of this rich tradition. As a teacher, he was somewhat unusual; his oral explanations often needed to be augmented or complemented for some missing words. Also one required to be accustomed to his oration. But his written notes were very thorough, clear and complete.
A vegetarian by food habit, Dr. Adhikary did not have any major health problem, though for the last few years he was suffering from mild hypertension. In the beginning of October, he developed an acute Obituary iii abdominal pain. It was diagnosed as due to hernia. He was admitted to a hospital where an emergency surgical operation had to be performed. The operation was successful but somehow he could not withstand the shock. He passed away a few hours after that in the evening of the 6-th of October.
A theist in faith, Dr. Adhikary observed the rituals of an orthodox Brahmin. There was a facet in his personality which inclined towards the occult -he had a keen interest in palmistry and astrology. Strange though it may seem to many, he had interest also in sports and politics, though he never participated actively in either. He felt very much homely in his own environment in the Department and did not think of changing his work place or going abroad. He had a soft corner for Calcutta Statistical Association Bulletin, which he was closely associated with -most of his papers came out in this journal. On the whole, he always remained close to his roots and lived for the city, for the Department and for the Association. He never projected himself or strove for winning laurels. For this, in many respects! he was deprived of recognition which he rightfully deserved.
List of Publications of Dr. Basudeb Adhikary